


Friendship Older Than The Universe You Know

by Haestia



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Epic Friendship, F/M, Friendship, Loneliness, Love/Hate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23212951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haestia/pseuds/Haestia
Summary: A collection of stories of Missy and Doctor during Missy's imprisonment in The Vault. Spoilers for Series 10.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor/Missy
Kudos: 15





	Friendship Older Than The Universe You Know

**Author's Note:**

> I am currently finishing with Series 10 of Doctor Who and I just had to explore this relationship between Doctor and Missy. I really love how complex both of them are and the way that we, as audience, always seem to know less than there is. Well, since I am easily taken by such a mystery, it is my intention to write a short story of the two of them which basically only deals with their relationship. I am quite busy even though all this corona stuff has put a stop to everything (yeah, online lectures...), but I'll try to update regularly. I might even finish it soon since I am currently feeling very inspired. Hope you enjoy!

At first it was just a box. Presumably empty, and perhaps anyone would say it really was. However, once you enter that very same, empty box and close all the sides, exits, plug all holes through which an insignificant ray of Sun may pierce through, you realise space of it is anything but _empty_. Excluding yourself, of course, and still you won't feel alone, even though you know you are. Perhaps, that is the point. Being all alone, isolated from the world, until loneliness starts taking a toll. Darkenss around you earns names and voices, sometimes even faces. Eventually, your own imagination, a product of madness and loneliness, starts haunting you. And you have absolutely nowhere to run in that small, tiny space. Of course, that terror begins later, first few hours always seem easy. Later on, Missy wished she was killed, never to regenerate again.

The Doctor picked up her limp, slightly burned out body. Looking back then, Missy probably could have hoisted herself up and enter her millennial cage, but she had no will to do so. After all, who would willingly enter their own prison? And yet, it never occured her to show any resistance as Doctor's slender arms carried her. There was no tenderness in that act, certainly. His arms were hard and sharp bony limbs, serving only as a tool of tidying up a never-ending mess. Still, he prevented her execution, for that she was grateful. Perhaps that last ounce of gratitude is what extinguished her will to resist. Missy embraced her fate, now wishing she hasn't.

Being a Time Lord came with certain perks, one of them being a flawless orientation skill in time. In other words, Missy always knew what time it is. It was like an inner radar, a feeling and equation in her mind combined. But sometimes, that knowledge was a curse. Feeling as the darkness reached out toward her, Missy began chanting a silent tone as she feared a return of the _drums_. Even though ske knew it was impossible, Missy was scared for her sanity she believed to be lost for so long. So she laughed, a ringing sound echoing in the closed darkness as she kept repeating: "You win." The Doctor had won.

Almost a week passed since her execution. Missy gently sang, filling in deafening silence, but instead of high bird-like song, eerie whispers escaped her throat. Small spaces presented no fear to her, as well as the dark. But this was no ordinary box. It was decorated with a creeping fear. Time Lady felt anxiety for the first time.

Missy couldn't help but wonder whether Doctor would come and talk with her, or just see her. She knew very well he wasn't naturally cruel, yet he could be if he wanted to. He wasn't a good man, yet he tried to be. Missy knows he isn't a good man. After all, there are some decision he has made that even make her feel shiver running down her spine. There are simply some doings that cannot make you _good_ anymore. But still, before her execution, Missy could have sworn he would come to visit her, open the box,, though never let her out. So why, after spending an entire week in the dark, her reasuring thought disintegrated into a mere hope?

By the end of a month spent in pitch darkness, Missy was still clinging tightly to that hope. She abhorred the fear she felt. Yes, she couldn't shake it off or ignore it. It did, however, take her some time to accept it. Missy was afraid. She was capable of so many horrific things, destroying planets, killing people without flinching, escaping the most dangerous situations...and now, she was just terrified she couldn't cope being held in darkness for a thousand years. Most of all, she feared losing her already damaged mind. The suffering and pain those drums left on her...Missy had to admit to herself she was too weak to endure them again. Of course, no one can ever know that.

Instead, thoughts that saved Missy from drowning in darkness were caused by events before Doctor spared her life and locked her away. She begged him to spare her. She begged him because she wanted to be good. When he pulled that lever, for a moment she was sure it was all over. But her hearts were still beating, thoughts of madness ever so swarming her mind. The Doctor decided to save her even before she begged him, for he meddled with execution machine. She felt such intense clawing of curiosity. She had so much questions. Usually, she wasn't the one asking, she never needed to. But now...Missy will never let anyone know how divided and lost she feels. It was all slowly turning into despair, a desperate wish to see anyone's face.

A month and a half passed and Missy flinched after hearing a first sound outside the box. Footsteps, not too heavy, but certainly firm, so it was a man of 6' 1" height, a middle-aged human she would say if it weren't for distinguishable Time Lord smell filled with cells of time travel and dust of space. Unmistakable deduction, it was the Doctor approaching.

He slowly stopped in front of the gates of the cube, as if he was hesitating or waiting for something. But Missy will not beg again.

"Missy."

His voice almost hurts her ears, as she hears for the first time in almost two months something other than her own whispers. She winces, letting out a single silent yelp, not loud enough for Doctor to hear. Suddenly, there is that annoying buzzing sound, as Doctor presses his sonic screwdriver on the door. To Missy's surprise, the darkness started to disappear. As if it was unlocking, a vast room illuminated by artificial light appeared around her. It was unfurnished, empty, cold, but at least it gave her a firm confirmation she was indeed alone in this box. To Missy, that was a comforting thought.

"Step away from the force field."

The Doctor's muffled voice came from the other side of the door. Of course, such security would always have force field as a special feature. It was quite a good one, just under certain angle one could see little bluish flickering in the corners of the transparent projection that would most likely cause a bolting sting if she were to touch it. Once the Doctor opens the door, it will spread. So Missy quickly got up to her feet, feeling slightly dizzy but never showing it. She stepped away when the ornaments on the door started turning, obviously unlocking as they fell out of their places. The sweet noise of removing barrier combined with irritating buzzing of the sonic screwdriver left Missy feel indifferent. It was like tasting a drop of freedom, but never drinking a full glass. Of course, she knew Doctor will not let her go. He could not after taking the oath.

Soon enough, the door slided away and revealed a now well-known face. But faces were of little importance to Time Lords, as they changed ever so often. It never mattered which face looked at her, he was always the Doctor to Missy. It was enough to look into a Time Lord's eyes, and everything was there, like an open book waiting to be read. That was how Time Lords recognised each other, because the eyes could never lie. They could only convey and tell story over and over. Blue. Brown. Green. Or even this stormy, cold, grey-blue with amber ring around pupil. The colour is irrelevant. Knowing someone longer than the age of some civilisations goes far beyond something as inessential.

"Took you long enough."

Missy chirped mockingly, straightening herself in order to restore some dignity even though she was quite aware she wasn't in her most representative state. Still, the Doctor did not bother really to notice her disheveled hair, black bags under her cold eyes or slightly too pale and skeletal features that adorned her now. He simply let his eyes, that looked grey in this light, follow her slightly unsteady steps as she went to walk around the room. After all, she did miss stretching and enjoying bigger space. The cracking of her bones as she stretched indicated that. After she was done with her performance of stretching, she pierced the Doctor with her blue eyes and smirked.

"You have no idea how hard is to find a matching wallpaper with this box of yours."

The Doctor said, smiling at her in a foolish way, but Missy knew very well the Doctor is no fool. She let her hair fall from once perfectly stylized bun. It was almost unnatural seeing her with dark locks overflowing her shoulders. She almost seeme... _human_. Human in a way how banal her action was. Just tying her hair up. It only prompted Doctor to remember thoughts that kept coming to him for last month and so, the reason he had decided to come and visit her. Missy's begging and promise and wish to become good followed him everywhere, haunting him like a ghost from past burried deep beneath all the years both of them lived. Is it possible for someone like her to seek redemption? To wish to become _good_? He himself didn't know whether he is a good man. He often asked himself if he even had any right to judge Missy for her doings.

"Thousand years. A bit long even for a Time Lady, don't you think so, Doctor?"

Missy broke the silence, shaking away the thoughts of which wallpaper could really match with decorations on her prison. She turned around, purposely widening her arms as if trying to embrace the entire room. The Doctor did get a hint of her actions, of course.

"Ah, yes. I assumed you might get bored."

He smiled in a slightly mocking way, as if trying to hold Missy on a thin ice. Missy, on the other side, couldn't say she really liked all of Doctor's attitude, the way he wanted her to accept he really holds her in a tight grip now. However, she was intelligent enough to know he really does hold her. Perhaps she could break free, but in the end, the Doctor would keep on chasing her. Both of them weren't really a type of people who chase each other. In the end, Missy would always come to Doctor, pulling his sleeve and he would go with her unwillingly until both of them decided they had enough of each other for some time. That is at least how she was seeing this. Whenever she would get bored or wished for an old friend to chat with, Missy would do something to attract his attention and there we go again. All of this, the way they acted, was nothing more or less than another infintively complex friendship. And yet, this situation was different. They were to spend a millennia in each other's company, more or less. Missy couldn't quite help herself but wonder how that would go. And if they already have to spend so much time together, why wouldn't she keep them both interested with that new challenge of turning herself good? It was already fun seeing that distrustful, wary gaze that would never truly believe her she wouldn't try to escape the Vault. It was fun because escaping was the last thing on her mind and the Doctor had no clue.

"It might be hard to keep me here if I do get, yes."

Missy lied openly. knowing the Doctor won't listen to her words since he already formed his opinions upon this situation. The Doctor smirked, crossing his hands behind his back as he tore off his slightly cold gaze, but never cold as hers, from her and looked around Missy's prison. The Vault technology wasn't as unfriendly or incompatible as it seemed. Granting Missy this room was rather simple - The Doctor just connected the Vault's circuit to TARDIS's space dimension converter, let her create a random room, uploaded the data of it in circuit and activated it with his sonic. It was a small compensation for letting Missy wait so long in the darkness. Of course, he had to go efficiently under cover in order to be able to fullfil his guardian duty, so that did take up some time since he wasn't used to stationary way of living. The other part of the reason was simply a puzzlement he felt toward Missy. Her being the closest to him from his species did fill up certain emptiness no human could. It was a shared experience, suffering, someone who understands and knows him completely. Then again, Missy was...well, Missy. Of course, he was no fool. He did not trust her and he never will, but he did yearn for the old days when two of them weren't so obssessed with stabbing in the back or killing each other off. Well, that was mostly from Missy's side, but he did prove more than enough times he was capable of the same.

"So you seek entertainment."

The Doctor sighed, digging his hands in the pockets of his velvet, magician coat. Obviously, they were bigger on the inside as he soon pulled out a small pile of rectangular objects Missy chose to ignore in favour of her venomous comments.

"Oh, just bring me one of your petty, little humans you love so much so I can play with them."

Doctor was not amused of course, but he did not react in any way but gave her a colder glare and sigh. He held out to her the objects in his hands and Missy recognised books, at least five of them. Five books could last a day perhaps, depending on what genre he brought her. Still, it was enough to make her shut up.

"Here. You can kill the characters in your mind once you read these."

The Doctor said and put the books down, not approaching Missy to hand them over. She was aware this act was not out of distrust, or fear. It was out of sheer chance of putting her in place. Indeed, she was dependant of him right now. Still, in the briefest of moments, it crossed her mind not to read these books out of spite. But she wasn't stupid. She will take what he gives.

The Doctor turned and started walking out of the Vault. A feeling that could be described as a surprise lingered in the air, and Missy felt the urge to stop him, to make him stay a little while and talk. It wouldn't matter about what. Just talking would be nice. Sometimes the way her mindset would keep changing scared her. In one moment she would be ready to kill him and escape, and in the next she'd like to be his trusting best friend.

"I meant it."

Missy said with voice not even nearly as cocky as usual. If anything, the tone if it was peculiar. Her blue eyes traced the outlines of the books when the Doctor abruptly stopped. He turned slighty, just to look at her over his bony shoulder.

"I want to become good."

Missy elaborated her words, still not looking the Doctor in his eyes. It was an unwise move, she was aware of it. Looking back onto eyes as the tellers of everything, yes, the Doctor would clearly be able to distinguish whether his old friend was lying or not. If only she hadn't had thousands of years to practice lying just like him. But her trick was to lie rarely, perhaps only when necessary. No one would trust her still. It was just enough to lie at crucial points. In any other sense, the Doctor was a better liar indeed. However, Missy's avoiding of his gaze was not induced by fear of being caught in a potential lie. It was, in fact, because she wasn't sure she was lying.

"I don't know how one becomes good. I know how to strive to be good. I can help you with that. If you want."

The Doctor said, turning away from her again. He was once again preparing to leave and lock her, but he still stood a few more seconds there, waiting patiently for her answer.

"Yes. Help me, Doctor."


End file.
